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- Convenor:
-
Jean-Luc Martineau
(INALCO (CESSMA))
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
-
Hélène Charton
(CNRS)
- Discussant:
-
Hélène Charton
(CNRS)
- Format:
- Panels
- Location:
- KH106
- Start time:
- 30 June, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/Zurich
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
From the 1930s to the late 1970s in Africa, education policies became part of the agenda of various education policy makers. Europeans or later African nationalist leaders had locally strong and long term inputs in the education field which was unevenly welcome by people with contrasting results.
Long Abstract:
From the 1930s to the late 1970s, in Africa whatever European rule it had been submitted to, education policies, free education schemes, school building programs became part of the agenda of various administrations. Europeans or later African nationalists had strong and long term inputs in that field which was unevenly welcome by people with contrasting results.
At the apex of colonialism (1930s), during the self-government era and after independences (up to late 70s), policy makers could have had various aims according to the time but they have impacted quite strongly educational structures in many post colonial states as well as individual behaviours and collective ideologies toward education. In some countries, priority given to school development has even shaped national or collective identities as well as long term political speeches. In many case, it is in cities - but also in rural areas - that these educational policies were framed, implemented and where they reached successes by convincing (or not) people of the importance of school for the new nations.
The panel aims at presenting the social and political aftermaths of these policies whatever they were shaped for during these 50 years of long « transition » identified as colonial and post-colonial, not only to study the now well known « aventure ambigüe » of African individuals having been westernized by missionary or state owned schools but also to analyse in which way the « school desire » (Charton, 1997) could have lead to local specific developments where ambitious policies have been implemented.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
This proposal will bring to light the coeducation and sport role in the formation of a protestant autochtone elite within the most prestigious elite school in (post)-colonial Uganda, Budo King's College.
Paper long abstract:
During the early Colonial era in Uganda (1894-1962) we can see the birth of a multitude missionary schools. Most of these schools are located in Buganda (South Uganda). This Buganda Kingdom was favoured by British Protectorate and therefore by taking advantage of this fact, they maintained their political, economical and cultural monopolies in Uganda.
The King's College in Budo, Buganda, was founded by the Church Missionary Society in 1906. The school's main goal was to educate chiefs' sons about colonial values and colonial norms. The Protectorate's powers needed to form a new autochtone colonial elite as a response to the new indirect rule model. Furthermore, in the 1920's, the King's College was the most important school in terms of excellency in Uganda and the birthplace of the uganda elites. It was a part of this elite society who has taken over the independence movements and has led the political parties at the end of colonial domination and at the beginning of Independence.
The particularity of this school remained in its coeducational politics. In fact, in 1935 a coeducational school curriculum was established for the first time in Uganda. This study proposes bringing to light the role played by the coeducation in the (post-) colonial elite formation. This perspective adds an original dimension to the subject matter because it tests the coeducation in Budo under the scope of sport practices.
Paper short abstract:
Cette communication propose d’étudier la question de l’adaptation de l’enseignement en AOF en soulignant les profondes continuités à l’œuvre des années 1930 jusqu'au-delà des indépendances, malgré le discours de la réforme, voire de la rupture.
Paper long abstract:
L'« adaptation » de l'enseignement en AOF emprunte à la politique scolaire développée en métropole même, en particulier l'idéologie des « petites patries », mais fait du contexte impérial un nouveau laboratoire pour cette idéologie ensuite réverbérée à nouveau en métropole. Celle-ci tente de conjurer les effets de l'urbanisation et met au cœur de sa pédagogie le monde rural et la paysannerie africaine, donnée en modèle aux élites scolaires. Si cette adaptation de l'enseignement opère différemment en fonction des périodes, des espaces, des contraintes budgétaires, des convergences de vue ou oppositions entre acteurs bureaucratiques et de l'idéologie plus ou moins pragmatique des acteurs en charge de sa définition, une remarquable continuité s'observe au-delà des tentatives de « réaction à la réaction » à partir de 1945. Nous reviendrons sur les principales controverses autour de l'adaptation scolaire en AOF en analysant les textes, intentions et débats entre les principaux acteurs de cette politique. Au-delà des consignes officielles, nous verrons en particulier comment les pratiques de classes informent de la manière dont cette politique a été reçue et réappropriée par les maîtres africains qui furent en dernier ressort les véritables acteurs et médiateurs de cette adaptation (ou de son refus), posant les bases de ce que sera l'enseignement après les indépendances, lesté de continuités souvent moins visibles que les ruptures annoncées.
Paper short abstract:
When independence came to West Africa, it greeted a regional teacher scarcity. Given the centrality of education for development, staffing schools became a key challenge of statecraft. This paper analyzes the imaginative coalitions of teachers created by Kwame Nkrumah and Félix Houphouët-Boigny.
Paper long abstract:
In April 1957, Kwame Nkrumah and Félix Houphouët-Boigny made a bet. Eager modernizers both, they embraced the same goal—development—but disagreed on how to achieve it. The Ghanaian idealist affirmed the need for true political independence a priori while the Ivorian pragmatist asserted the primacy of continued economic assistance from France. In ten years, so went the wager, they would see who had developed faster.
For both leaders, education was the key to rapid development. Taking their 'bet' as a basis for comparison, this paper analyzes the key challenge facing education in postcolonial Africa, that of staffing the school. Independence, which came to most of West Africa by the early 1960s, greeted a small cadre of educated Africans, very few of whom chose teaching as a profession. Given the overriding imperative to "develop", and the centrality of education to that enterprise, the most pressing question facing newly-sovereign African statesmen was the following: how, and from where, will I get my teachers?
Félix Houphouët-Boigny and Kwame Nkrumah, each lacking (though in different measure) domestic educators, hit upon the same strategy. Blending political, ideological, and economic capital, both leaders constructed transnational coalitions of teaching talent, draining these unique configurations of human resources into their school systems. This paper examines the creation of these teaching coalitions, their dependence on particular sources of capital mobilized by Houphouët and Nkrumah, and their impermanence in a regional education context marked by teacher scarcity.
Paper short abstract:
In Tanganyika, education has not constituted a high priority of German and British colonial administrations. When coming to power after Independence, President J. K Nyerere emphasized the development of mass education as a way to incorporate all citizens in the building of the nation.
Paper long abstract:
In Tanganyika, education has not constituted a high priority of colonial administrations neither during German period nor under British protectorate. When coming to power after Independence, President J. K Nyerere emphasized the development of mass education as a way to incorporate all citizens in the building of the nation and its development process by raising their level of political awareness and by improving their agricultural skills . This education program known as "Education for Self-Reliance" (ESR) launched at the Arusha Declaration (1967), was strongly linked to the development of self-sufficient agricultural communities (Ujamaa) which represented the framework of Tanzanian political and economic patterns. Primary schools were given top priority, absorbing almost all state resources devoted to education. Primary education was not aimed at bringing the pupils to further studies but was considered as the normal end of schooling for most children. As Nyerere wrote : « Educational system of Tanzania must emphasize co-operative endeavour, not individual advancement" . Even though ESR program was abandoned in the middle of 1980s in the context of structural adjustment, its philosophy and the specific educational pattern it had set have strongly shaped the representations of education of Tanzanian leaders as well as people. The desire for further education that has partly led the government to expand secondary education since mid-2000s and the form of this expansion can be analyzed within Nyerere's heritage. Focusing on discourses which legitimate the educational reforms of the former two decades, this contribution intends to enlighten the durability of Nyerere's legacy in education sector whether continued or contested.
Paper short abstract:
Le Cameroun actuel est le résultat d’un compromis, fruit de mutations constitutionnelles. Le système éducatif qui en est issu porte en lui le désir de garder côte-à-côte les parties anglophone et francophone, non sans mal.
Paper long abstract:
L'actuel système éducatif camerounais résulte d'un compromis entre défis économiques, politiques et sociaux auxquels doit faire face le gouvernement. État fédéral, puis État unitaire, l'État camerounais va chercher à gérer au mieux ce double héritage colonial et les implications politiques qui en résultent : une éducation au service de la Nation. Ce symbole de l'unité nationale est cependant mis à mal depuis quelques mois avec les mouvements d'humeur observés dans la partie anglophone du pays, qui ont conduit à une grève généralisée, au motif que cette partie du pays est lésée et phagocytée, voire absente dans la sphère décisionnelle. Des enquêtes menées dans les provinces anglophones nous permettront de mesurer de quelle manière et avec quels leviers le système éducatif participe à la construction de l'État.
Paper short abstract:
This is the story of a virtually unknown South African educationalist who played a key role in the struggle for equal education in South Africa. He was a member of the emergent African intellectual elite of South African society in the 1930s who played a significant role as an educator and policy activist throughout his career in South Africa.
Paper long abstract:
This is the story of a virtually unknown South African educationalist who played a key role in the struggle for equal education in South Africa. He was a member of the emergent African intellectual elite of South African society in the 1930s who played a significant role as an educator and policy activist throughout his career in South Africa. He was also a prominent member of African teacher organisations and a member of the ANC and AAC. As headmaster of Adams College (1938-1947) and Ohlange Institute (1947-1955) and a member of the Education Department of the South African Native College (SANC) (Fort Hare) until the time of his departure into voluntary exile in 1959 he was associated with systematic opposition to segregated education and was prominent in protest against the introduction of Bantu Education. This work is an attempt to see his career in the context of wider policy debate over African education at a time of rapid change and it represents an attempt to explore the role of an African educational professional within the framework of an emergent culture of international educational policy development and resistance to segregation and apartheid education.